Congrats to the Class of 2024 scholarship recipients!

We would like to recognize Mariana Tapia, Srobana Bhattacharya, and Wendie Chen for the scholarship awards they have received for their thesis projects.

Srobana and Wendie were this year’s recipients of the Sketchboard Pro Thesis Sponsorship Award, while Mariana earned an SVA Alumni Scholarship Award. Read more below!

Braintreehouse and Sketchboard Pro have once again generously sponsored the Sketchboard Pro Thesis Sponsorship Award, which consists of an iPad, a Sketchboard Pro Artist Bundle, and a $2500 award for production expenses. Award winners Srobana Bhattacharya and Wendie Chen were selected by last year’s award recipients, Basya Goldstein and Mariah Plakas.

Srobana Bhattacharya is an educator and illustrator. She teaches political conflict and is particularly interested in exploring and creating graphic novels that tell stories emanating from such conflicts. She is also interested in children’s book illustration on varied topics including fantasy and whimsy. Srobana’s thesis project, Flight, is a sci-fi graphic novel that follows the journey of Tara who escapes Earth for a new life on Mars only to realize that it comes at the cost of giving up her memory.

“The Sketchbook Pro products are fantastic and I started using them immediately after receiving them. I primarily work on an iPad, and to receive one along with the accessories is almost like accessing my own studio space. I am enjoying working on my new device and absolutely thrilled to continue working on it and bring my thesis project to life. Along with this, the cash award is immensely helpful for me to organize the materials that I need for the thesis show. I intend to use it for high quality prints, framing original artwork, making some merchandise and 3D printing.”

Wendie Chen is an introverted artist and illustrator who is secretly eager to tell her stories. With a psychology background and experience in the study of art therapy, she believes that art and stories are powerful healing tools to everyone. She’s especially interested in children’s book illustration. Her aim is to use her stories and work to create “comfort nuggets” that everyone can enjoy. Wendie’s thesis project, Once Upon Her Time, is an illustrated novel consisting of four mythology/fairytale adaptations that tell the tales from the female protagonists’ perspectives.

“Since I work primarily on my iPad, the Sketchboard Pro products greatly improved my creative experience. As an international student who does not have work authorization within the US, I do not currently receive any income or retain much personal savings. Therefore, this award helped me a lot in planning out my budget. I got to create higher quality illustrations more efficiently. I also got to expand my options in printing, merch making and hosting the website for the thesis project.”

“At Sketchboard Pro our mission has always been put simply as “to support artists”—a silly pun given the nature of our product, but also something we take to heart as most of us are also working artists.

“With the headlining technology shift over the past couple of years we’ve revised our mission “to support human artists.” It’s more important than ever to foster the creative journeys of young artists. We treasure our partnership with the School of Visual Arts and we’re so grateful to be able to grant support to the incredibly talented winners of this award.”

Visit them at sketchboardpro.com

Every year, SVA’s Alumni Society selects recipients of the Alumni Scholarship Award, supplying them with funds to help them complete their thesis projects.

Mariana Tapia is a storyteller and comics illustrator from Mexico City. She currently lives in Chicago, where she makes comics, children’s books, not-great ceramics, and silkscreen printing. Before making art, Mariana was a Political Scientist, and now she tries to combine both. For her, personal stories are always impacted by the social context and the political changes around us. Some issues that she likes to talk about are immigration, healthcare, and gender equality. She used the funds to support the completion of her thesis project, “Recreational,” a collection of graphic essays about the decriminalization of recreational cannabis use in Mexico and the United States.

“This scholarship will help me in several stages of my process, like compensating the interviewees I will talk to in my project, making sure I can use the same quality materials consistently throughout the project, and printing my pitch materials and the first chapter of the book.”